Abominables

Abominables — page 3 — sacred mountain of Nanvi Dar and all her kicks and struggles and screams felt no more to his brute strength than the hiccuping of a flea Until at last the thin air bitter cold and blind terror brought release and the poor girl mercifully fainted When she came round she knew at once where she was There could only be one place as beautiful as this heaven The sky above her head was a marvelous rich royal blue with little fleecy clouds The grass on which she lay was soft and sweet smelling and studded with beautiful flowers tiny blue gentians golden primulas scarlet lilies Agatha sat up She felt sore and bruised but that was understandable You couldn’t die and go to heaven without feeling a little bit uncomfortable Perhaps I haven’t died after all said Lady Agatha And there was something else that didn’t go with the idea of heaven in the least A few yards away from her sitting so quietly that she had taken it for a boulder or the stump of a huge tree was an absolutely enormous dark brown beast It wasn’t a bear it was much much bigger than a bear It wasn’t a man it was much much hairier than any man And then she remembered A yeti She had been carried away by a yeti over mountains so dangerous that she could never make her way She looked around The air was warm and she saw trees covered in red and white and cream blossoms as big as plates There was a stream crystal clear and bubbly with kingfishers darting about its banks Far above her an eagle circled lazily She was in a broad valley surrounded on every side by sheer jagged cliffs and escarpments Then to her surprise beyond the steep ridges the unmistakable outline of the peak of Nanvi Dar glittering white in the early-morning sun the valley she saw that surrounded

Abominables — page 4 — back alone She was trapped here in this secret valley perhaps forever I should feel terribly frightened thought Agatha But feeling frightened is an odd thing You either feel it or you don’t and Agatha didn’t Instead she got up and walked quietly toward the yeti Then she leaned forward and put her hand on the yeti’s arm At once she was buried up to the elbow in long cool silky tickly hair masses and masses of it The yeti leaned forward He blew softly with his lower lip to clear away his hair and then Lady Agatha Farlingham became the first human ever to see a yeti’s face She thought it a most interesting and distinguished face Yetis have huge round intelligent eyes as big as saucers If you stop and look into a yeti’s eyes instead of just running away and screaming you can’t be afraid Yetis also have snub noses and big ears and the ears have a most useful flap on them an ear lid which they can close This saves them from getting earaches in the fierce Himalayan winds and is also useful when they don’t want to hear what people are saying Their mouths are big and generous-looking Best of all are their smiles Before I had seen a yeti smile Lady Agatha would later say I didn’t know what a smile was Not only was the yeti’s smile beautiful it was very very comforting to anyone who might be worrying about being eaten If you want to know what a person eats look at his teeth The yeti’s teeth were white and even and quite flat like the teeth of a very clean sheep and Agatha understood immediately not only that the yeti wouldn’t eat her but that he couldn’t eat her And in fact as she found out later yetis are the strictest and most careful vegetarians

Abominables — page 5 — Oh I like you said Agatha holding out her other hand A great burden seemed to fall off the yeti’s shoulders He got up and stood there waiting with his head to one side and then he began to lead her along the floor of the valley toward a little copse of slender Himalayan birches where some yaks were peacefully grazing And as he walked Agatha saw that his enormous feet each about the size of a well-fed dachshund had eight toes and were put on back to front And this of course is why when people try to track yetis in the snow they never find them Yetis who seem to be going are really coming and yetis who seem to be coming are really going It is as simple as that Suddenly the yeti stopped bent down to a little hollow by the bank of the stream and began to clear away the dried grass and sticks that covered it When he had finished he grunted in a pleased sort of way and then he moved aside so that Agatha could see what he had uncovered Oh said Agatha Sleeping peacefully curled up in each other’s arms were two fat furry baby yetis She bent down to touch the one nearest to her Its silly big feet were pulled round its plump stomach and when it opened its eyes and looked at her they were a deep and lovely blue Then she tickled the other yeti and it twitched in its sleep and woke too and its eyes were a rich and serious brown But the yeti father had begun to look anxious Something wasn’t right He began to stir the babies round prodding and digging and turning them over like underdone sausages And then he pounced and with a proud grunt held something out to Agatha

Abominables — page 6 — It was another baby yeti but so small and squashed and funny-looking that it might just as well have been an old glove or a tea cozy or a run-over cat And when it opened its eyes and looked at her Agatha got a shock One of its eyes was a bright and piercing blue the other was a deep and serious brown A walleyed yeti said Agatha in amazement

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